Monday, September 2, 2013

Review: Also Known As

Also Known As, by Robin Benway. The GoodReads summary:
Being a 16-year-old safecracker and active-duty daughter of international spies has its moments, good and bad. Pros: Seeing the world one crime-solving adventure at a time. Having parents with super cool jobs. Cons: Never staying in one place long enough to have friends or a boyfriend. But for Maggie Silver, the biggest perk of all has been avoiding high school and the accompanying cliques, bad lunches, and frustratingly simple locker combinations.

Then Maggie and her parents are sent to New York for her first solo assignment, and all of that changes. She'll need to attend a private school, avoid the temptation to hack the school's security system, and befriend one aggravatingly cute Jesse Oliver to gain the essential information she needs to crack the case . . . all while trying not to blow her cover.
So this this book was practically the definition of cute, fluffy, and adorable. I wasn’t quite sure going into it how I’d feel, since I really liked “Audrey, Wait!” by this author but didn’t dig “The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, and June” quite as much. But, yep, this book was adorable. And actually rather hilarious as well. Maggie made me smile on, like, every page. You know who else I loved? Her friend Roux. She’s not a former-mean-girl turned nice so much as a former-mean-girl turned sarcastic, and she’s practically as hilarious as Maggie, so when you get both of them in a scene, it’s pretty much all you could hope for. And Maggie’s banter with the crush-worthy Jesse is grin-evoking as well.

The only problems I had with this book are the problems I have with pretty much every YA spy novel. 1) Why does the main character never do the logical thing and get help from more experienced spies when things start going downhill? And 2) Why does she always feel the need to spill the beans about who she really is the first time a cute boy comes along? But other than that, I didn’t have any issues with the book. It was pretty predictable, but I was expecting that, so it didn’t bug me.

Overall, a light, funny read. It was a quick read, but it kept me entertained the whole time. Recommended for fans of Leila Sales.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

2 comments:

  1. I haven't read many teen spy books. I'll def put this one on the TBR. I've never thought about why the heroine always tries to spill the beans! That's a good point!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think this book is *so* cute especially Roux and Maggie's friendship. I also liked the adults though we didn't get to see enough of them and I am hopeful for more fun books in this series.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...